Application of the genetic algorithm for optimization of the public transportation lines

The public transport operators must find a compromise between the growing demands and the available resources or budget constraints. Very often a significant improvement of the efficiency of the public transportation system can be attained by minor changes of the layout of communication lines or the timetable. Such optimization problems are computationally very complex, thus some heuristic procedures should be applied. In this paper a genetic algorithm is used to find the optimal structure of public transport network with given rolling stock. As the objective function the total time of realization of the transportation demands is assumed. The case study of a city in southern Poland is presented.